Prime Time Geek

 

 PTG Episode 31: The ARGs are Coming [54:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

PTG Episode 31 is brought to you by the now-official PTG/SomaCow Karaoke Challenge/Tweetup, scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 18th, sometime after PTG ends that night at Mugshots Sports Bar and Grill in Altamonte Springs. You fans of PTG that are local to Orlando, please come on out and show your support for the show as I take up the karaoke gauntlet that was thrown down by SomaCow, who insisted on the air during PTG that they (Geoff and Mickey, specifically) would “blow me off the stage.”

As Clint Eastwood once said in a trailer for a movie I didn’t think was all that great except for John Malkovich’s creepy performance (no, they’re not all creepy-example: The Man in the Iron Mask) and Rene Russo in skirt suits, “That’s not going to happen.”

What WILL happen is lots of singing, lots of mingling, lots of laughter, and probably some drinking (it IS a bar, after all.) So please, local fans of PTG, do consider making plans for join PTG, SomaCow, and The Experience for good times, good beer, and probably some lousy singing. For more details and developments check the Events message board at SomaCow.net/forum. It’ll be fun! We’ll bond. You’ll see.

Oh, and if you’re on Twitter, tweet about it. Tweet about it a LOT. Also, if you haven’t already, follow the show on Twitter by clicking HERE.

Have a great Fourth of July weekend, everyone!

 

 PTG Episode 30: Triumph and Tragedy [58:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prime Time Geek Episode 30 is brought to you by Add This. Help support Prime Time Geek by using the “Share” button at the end of this and every entry, provided by Add This, to share this page on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and more than a dozen other social networking sites. And if anyone makes fun of you for listening to such geeky fare, don’t you worry. I know PLENTY of people who will beat them up or sit on them for you. Just let me know … and offer to buy them lunch once the deed is done.

PTG Episode 30 brings you the return of the Summer Movie Review, focused on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, as well as the DC Comics Spotlight, focused on Green Lantern #42, the finale of the ‘Agent Orange’ arc. Good stuff, certainly, and ordinarily either one of those might be the highlights of an episode of PTG. But this was no ordinary week by any means.

I know quite a few people who believe that bad news, particularly news about prominent deaths, comes in “threes.” Last week seemed to provide more evidence to support this superstition, right up until Sunday, June 28th, when news broke of the death of TV pitchman Billy Mays.

Rest in Peace, Billy Mays

Obviously, that news broke the morning after this episode was recorded, so you won’t find any mention of it during this hour as we remembered those that the celebrity world lost this week, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. I heard a lot of people say last week that they would remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard this week’s news, particularly the news about Michael, but somehow I doubt as time passes that many will remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard about Billy Mays’ passing. Hopefully, he’ll be remembered the way that print and online publications were choosing to portray him, as one of the hardest working men in television, a family man who genuinely enjoyed what he was doing and was grateful for the opportunities that came his way. I can’t say in all honesty that I enjoyed his on-air “sell and yell” persona all that much, but I can certainly respect and remember him for the sheer volume of work the man put together, his consistency, his enthusiasm, and his example as someone who spent his life doing what he loved. It’s quite likely that in the days ahead, as the aftermath of Jackson’s death takes hold of the media’s reins, the story of Mays’ death will quickly drop off the radar, as our world’s morbid fascination with the eccentric Jackson has, with his death, now found new “life”. For that reason alone, I offer this humble hope for someone else entirely. Rest in peace, Billy Mays.

 

 PTG Episode 29: It's a Kind of Magic [60:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prime Time Geek Episode 29 is brought to you by the (still) most addicting CCG out there, Magic: the Gathering. It doesn’t matter one bit if you’ve been out of the game for months or years; it’s still just as fun, just as engrossing, just as addicting in terms of wanting to keep playing and get more cards to improve your decks to be ready for the next battle. The new Alara Reborn expansion is every bit as fun as the folks over at Cool Stuff Games told us it would be, but there’s something even more exciting coming next month.

M10, the latest core set and rules revision for MTG, is coming to stores the weekend of July 18th, with pre-release events going on all over the country the weekend prior. Keep checking back with Prime Time Geek over the coming weeks as we gear up to cover the pre-release event going on at Cool Stuff Games over in Winter Park, Florida. There’s even a chance we’ll be doing a special live broadcast of PTG from Cool Stuff Games, so we’ll keep you posted on that. Stop by their store, or if you don’t live in the Orlando/Winter Park area, check out their online store at www.coolstuffinc.com!

And yeah, in case anyone is wondering from the title of this episode, I’m a Queen fan and a Highlander fan, so I’ve had those songs in my head all day. “So here we are … we’re the princes of the universe …”

 

 PTG Episode 28: He's Only Mostly Dead [63:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prime Time Geek Episode 28 is brought to you by Custom Design & Printed, where we’re creating our NEW online swag store! Printfection was cool for a while, and that store is still up, but if you take a minute to check out Custom Design & Printed, I think you’ll notice right away a LOT more product for a WHOLE lot cheaper. How about a PTG T-shirt for $16 instead of $25? How about mugs, keychains, hip flasks, and tons more aside from apparel? How about you take a look for yourself and check it out. Remember, any purchase you make supports Prime Time Geek, and your support is GREATLY appreciated, so keep checking here at primetimegeek.com for updates on when the new store will be open for business!

It’s been a while since we’ve had an Ed Brubaker lovefest on PTG, so here’s one to make up for lost time. In our minds, its completely justifiable: Captain America, which has been steered with unswerving ability by Brubaker for several years now, led off the week by making headlines in the mainstream media (although not in the way Marvel might have preferred–see below), and on Wednesday the latest issue of Incognito, Brubaker’s latest not-for-the-kiddies collaboration with artist Sean Phillips (Sleeper, Criminal) for Marvel’s Icon imprint, hit store shelves. Incognito has been nothing but fun, and Steve Rogers, it turns out, is only “mostly dead.” Brubaker is responsible for both, so he gets pretty much a whole hour of PTG. End of story.

And just one final thought to follow up on this episode’s lead segment: don’t hold the whole “Captain America #600 in stores on Monday” fiasco against your local store. IF you knew that Cap #600 was supposed to be in stores on Monday (a BIG ‘if’) and you went to get it, chances are your favorite comic shop didn’t have it yet because a) UPS hadn’t arrived yet to deliver it; or b) the store refused to pay extra shipping to get it there early, predicting (accurately) that there wouldn’t be enough increased traffic on the Monday to justify the expense. But it’s much more likely you didn’t even KNOW the issue would be available on Monday, you went by your local comic store on Wednesday, as usual, and there were plenty of copies left since no one came in on Monday because the media hyped Cap’s return but rarely mentioned anything about Cap #600, the issue that kicks off the story of his return, being in stores that day. In this economy, the smart play was to NOT pay the extra money to Diamond in order to get the issues early–the stores that did definitely did NOT get enough traffic on Monday to justify the expense. Said it during the show, it’s been said many times, many ways, I’ll say it one more time: Blame Marvel-they screwed the pooch big-time on that one. Doesn’t happen often–they scored big with the Spidey-Obama promotion back in January, and when Cap’s death made headlines 2 1/2 years ago, the mainstream media ran with it, resulting in big bucks for the House of M. Chalk it up to risking big to win big, as Marvel often does, and this time coming up a loser. It happens to the best, and I wouldn’t bet against them coming up on the winning end next time they roll the dice.

 

 PTG Episode 27: Dave and Busted [60:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

PTG Episode 27 is brought to you by Pocky Men’s Bitter Chocolate. It’s not bad. Really. It won’t qualify as your Manly maow maow maow maow Man! thing of the week to eat some, but can’t hurt, either. If I have no idea what I’m talking about, you haven’t been listening to SomaCow, and shame on you. Go listen to some after this episode by clicking HERE–they’re the ones who are REALLY bringing you PTG, after all.

Fun episode this week–talked about how Dave & Buster’s down in Ft. Lauderdale ain’t what it used to be when I lived down there, how Uncanny X-Men might have been better if only …(see below) and that Astronaut Ice Cream Sandwiches are NASTY. Like, throw-up-in-your-mouth NASTY. Go try one and you’ll see what I mean.

So, after recording Episode 27 I went and did some more research on the man who had been, up until the most recent issue #511, the artist on Uncanny X-Men, the much-maligned Greg Land. After doing that research, I realize that my insight on the problem with Greg Land was misinformed, to say the least. I was under the impression that the originality of his work was in question because he copied images he found on the internet or in other media, but it’s definitely a bigger issue than that, and I apologize to the comic book reading community at large who probably have known this about the man for years and I’m the last one to report about it. According to critics, Greg Land actually TRACES images he finds in other media, photos from films, from lingerie catalogs, from porn (allegedly) from anything floating out there built around stereotypical Western images of beauty (male or female) and turns them into comic book panels and covers. In the show image above is one of the more infamous examples that fans have identified, Pamela Anderson on the right, Marvel Comics’ Satana on the left. [For more 'did he or didn't he' examples, click HERE and check out the JimSmash blog, 'cause he presents a compelling case.] Apparently, and with good reason, a good portion of comic book fandom regards Land with a certain amount of derision for this practice, but it can’t be hurting him that badly, reputation-wise, because he still GETS WORK. PLUS he still gets invited to comic conventions–he was, in fact, in attendance at both MegaCon and FX! International here in Orlando this past year–and you don’t hear about the man being lynched at his public appearances. He must have some following, and I can’t imagine he actually traces when he does sketches for fans at these shows, either.

As I said in the show, that really wasn’t my problem with the art in the “Sisterhood” issues I read, anyway–my problem was that Matt Fraction’s narrative wasn’t served well at all by the art, which was confusing at times due to the number of characters involved and the chaos of the battle sequences taking place. As to the tracing issue, I’m not sure what to think. I certainly don’t feel the same righteous indignation that many comic book readers on the internet seem to feel when it comes to Land’s perceived ‘deception.’ I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and so until I actually see Greg Land at a Con actually whip out a Frederick’s of Hollywood catalog and some tracing paper to do a sketch of Emma Frost, I’m not going to decry the man as a tracer. I will say that I might enjoy his work more on a book with fewer characters and a slower pace of movement.

 

 PTG Episode 26: Past, Present, and Future [51:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prime Time Geek Episode 26 is brought to you by Tate’s Comics in Lauderhill, Florida. Well, not exactly brought to you by Tate’s, since they’re not a sponsor, but they are REALLY cool. We here at PTG wholeheartedly recommend you check out their website, and if you’re in South Florida and love comics, toys, anime, gaming, or just about anything pop-culture related and you haven’t been up to Tate’s, shame on you. Get in your car, Google the directions, and go. Right now. Put the podcast on your iPod and take us with you, ’cause we’d love a return trip over there.

[NOTE: The correct address of Tate's Comics is 4566 N. University Dr. Lauderhill, FL 33351--during the podcast I erroneously located the store at 4555 N. University. I apologize for any confusion.]

Now, if you live in and around where Tate’s is located down there in the Lauderhill/Sunrise/Plantation area of Broward County, Florida, the name “Past, Present, and Future” might also be familiar to you, and might seem a strange choice of title for an episode of PTG during which much time is spent going ga-ga over Tate’s. But aside from being a store name held at one time by a store quite close to Tate’s, Crossroad Comics and Games, “past, present, and future” is very much a theme running throughout this entire hour of PTG. In the literal sense, it relates to both of the comics we spotlight in this episode: Batman #687, which ushers in a new era for the Caped Crusader as Dick Grayson takes on the mantle of the Bat; and Buck Rogers #1, which shows the beginning of an exciting new envisioning of one of sci-fi’s most venerable time-traveling heroes. In their own ways, Batman and Buck Rogers are characters whose appeal defies the passage of time, and no consideration of their new adventures can escape some form of comparison or contemplation of what has come before.

But Episode 26 is also very much about memories and change. After all, a trip to South Florida for me is a trip down “Memory Lane”, an opportunity to drive along the streets that my friends and I back in the day cruised upon as we quested for gaming books, for new anime, for Battletech miniatures, for rare toys, and just about anything else that we might have fixed our sights on back in the day. Trips into that area require that I reconcile those memories of past experiences with present circumstances, such as the fact that the store my friends and I referred to as “The Shrine” (the aforementioned Crossroad Comics) due to its sheer size and its vast selection of geekly distractions has since changed ownership twice and is now most certainly the second option for geek shopping in the area. “Going home” means recalling the past, reconciling it with changes in the present, and contemplating the future–it’s simply unavoidable, especially if you have someone with you who is seeing it all with fresh eyes. More often than not, those places that are so special in our memories as childhood haunts and playgrounds lose some of their lustre once they are stripped of the veil of nostalgia and seen under the present’s harsher light. Time is often unkind … often but not always.

Yes, the store in North Miami Beach where I bought my comics all through high school, the store I knew as “Super Heroes Unlimited,” is now known as “Villains” and is a fundamentally different store than it was 20 years ago, before the advent of Collectible Card Games. And yes, “The Shrine” may have been eclipsed in greatness by the awesomeness that is Tate’s Comics. But the very landscape of Geekdom in South Florida is changed beyond belief, simply because it is visible and vibrant, whereas in my day one could argue it was non-existent. This is very good thing in my mind, and though I might look back fondly on the way things were when I was younger, I certainly can’t argue that its a very good time to be a geek in South Florida, and I can’t imagine it changing for anything but the better in the future.

Amazing how things change.

SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Well, looks like James Buchanan Barnes, a.k.a. Bucky a.k.a. the current Captain America in Marvel Comics, is going to be looking for a new job very soon, because his predecessor will be returning to the land of the living after all.

As reported in the New York Daily News this morning, Marvel Comics will begin the story of the resurrection of Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, on July 1st with issue #1 of Captain America: Reborn. In yet another display of awesomeness, L.A. Times Hero Complex blogger Geoff Boucher has the only available five-page preview of that issue for the next 24 hours HERE.

Captain America #600, an giant-sized issue that marks the title’s return to its “original” numbering (starting with the original stories by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in Timely Comics in 1941 and all the appearances before Steve Rogers’ “true” return in Tales of Suspense #68 in October, 1964), plants the seeds for the now-confirmed “Captain America: Reborn” series, written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Bryan Hitch (The Ultimates, The Authority) and Butch Guice, who has handled art duties on Captain America on several occasions during Brubaker’s run along with Mike Perkins and Steve Epting. The issue is also quite the grab bag of fun stuff for fans of Brubaker’s run on Cap, as he shows us how those closest to Steve (including his enemies–Doctor Faustus and Tony Stark are noticeably absent from the issue) commemorate the one-year anniversary of his assassination. It happens to be that on that day Sharon Carter, Steve’s one-time SHIELD liaison/partner/paramour and the person who supposedly killed Steve while under the control of Faustus, follows up on pieces of her memory returning to her about that day, about the gun she used to shoot Steve and who she handed it to in the moments after she pulled the trigger and how something about it was wrong, and makes a ’stunning’ discovery. I won’t give away the details, but it all points to a doorway through which Steve Rogers can miraculously return.

If it sounds like I’m somewhat ambivalent about this turn of events, let me assure you that your perception is correct. In my mind, it’s simply too soon for this to happen. The Bucky-as-Cap era in the Marvel U has only just begun, and it’s gotten off to a great start. Both Brubaker and Brian Michael Bendis, handling Bucky-Cap in New Avengers, have crafted interesting and engaging stories featuring Steve’s successor, and the readership has responded. Judging from fan reaction I’ve read to today’s announcement and Cap #600, a great number of Marvel fans were okay with Bucky staying on as Cap for a while. Steve is beloved still, no doubt, but having a new Cap has made an already-must-read title even hotter on the stands every month.

When Steve was killed in the pages of Captain America #25 over two years ago, I mourned like no one else I know. In my fanboy heart, Steve Rogers stood equal to Clark Kent in terms of their importance and my personal devotion. But when people told me over and over, “Oh, don’t worry, he’ll be back soon,” I said, “No, or if he does come back, it won’t be for a LONG time.” I think a part of me didn’t really believe what I was saying, but it wanted it to be true because this death had had such resonance, had such a profound impact on readers and on the Marvel Universe itself. It felt like so much more than just the stunt that the death of Superman turned out to be fifteen years before. I said my farewell and Rest in Peace to Steve Rogers and moved on, hoping it would be at the very least like the death of Barry Allen in DC Comics, something that would truly stand the test of time and only be reversed after a whole generation of readers came to know and love a successor, as they did with Wally West.

Alas, it’s not meant to be. The only consolation is that the man who masterminded Steve Rogers’ death and successfully guided Captain America through the aftermath of that tragedy, writer Ed Brubaker, will also be the man who orchestrates his return. I have no doubt the story will be well-crafted and compelling reading, as I have as much faith in Bru as I do in any writer in comics today. And who knows what Marvel has in mind for Steve once he is back–as Marvel editor Tom Brevoort pointed out earlier today in an interview with Newsarama, Steve may not be ready right away to jump back into being Captain America once he’s ambulatory again.

But a part of me will still wish it hadn’t had to happen so soon.

 

 PTG Episode 25: Kill Them a Lot! [55:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prime Time Geek Episode 25 is brought to you by Bad Apple Comics. Vote for Bad Apple Comics as “Best Comic Store” in this year’s Orlando Weekly “Best Of Orlando 2009″ poll by clicking HERE. They’ll be your best friend, and so will PTG. (Okay, so maybe not your BEST friend, but we’ll both like you a whole lot.)

Lots of time in this episode is spent talking comics - special guest co-host Matthew Ruele spent some time before (and during) the show getting caught up on Marvel’s meltdown of the Ultimates universe, Ultimatum, which could carry the alternate title of “So You Think That’s a Gruesome Death?” Later in the episode, Bad Apple Comics General Manager Shawn Schinault calls in to talk further about Ultimatum, as well as the amazingly well done Old Man Logan story in Wolverine, the aftermath of Batman: Battle for the Cowl, and the new Batman and Robin #1. Shawn gives some interesting insights on the reasoning behind Ultimatum’s brutality, Old Man Logan’s brilliance, Batman: BFTC’s blunders, and Batman and Robin’s bright future. If you’re over at the Bad Apple store on OBT and you need a recommendation on something great to read, you could a lot worse than to ask Shawn to recommend something for you. The man simply KNOWS what’s good in a comic book.

Truthfully, as Matthew pointed out, it is quite sad that so many of Marvel’s heroes in this world have fallen, if for no other reason that these often-brilliant new takes on classic characters were once celebrated as much-needed revitalizing energy for a company that needed a shot in the arm. As Ultimatum rumbles to its final, body-count raising conclusion next month, I can’t escape the growing perception that writer Jeph Loeb’s blood-soaked opus is growing into an exercise in seediness, something akin to Hostel-like torture porn, where we as readers get to see characters we’ve come to care about sacrificed on the altar of crossover-event sensationalism. It’s simply not possible for issue #5 to not kill half the remaining cast, because to do anything less would be a letdown in comparison to what’s come before. We’ve come this far, Jeph–why not simply blow up the entire Ultimates Earth and be done with it?

 

 PTG Episode 24: Everything E3 [60:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prime Time Geek Episode 24 is brought to you by Just Push Play, hosted by Gary Holmes. I give a little grief to JPP on a weekly basis as part of encouraging everyone listening to PTG to check them out, but Gary’s call during this hour of PTG is probably the most compelling evidence as to why you should give them a listen as well. He talks fast, but he delivers his info like no one else and he knows his stuff, whether he’s talking video games, MMA, beer, or the countless other topics the man has accumulated knowledge about in his years. We thank Gary once again for taking time out of his busy schedule to call into the program, and as long as you checking out Gary’s show, why not also check out where he works when he’s not working on JPP, Willow Tree Cafe. Gary gave a helluva plug to Willow Tree at the end of his call–it was certainly enough to get me excited about checking out the place at the earliest opportunity.

Episode 24 is, as you can tell from the title, all about the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or “E3″ as it affectionately known. There was simply so much information coming out of this event all week long that I felt I needed not one, but two people to help me break it all down and distill the highlights. For that help I turned to Gary and also to my good friend Matt Ruele, who was kind enough to sit in, provide his insights on the news, and laugh heartily at my attempts at humor. A great deal of the information we talked about, including the many game trailers and demos we discussed for games such as Sony’s God of War III (pictured above), Nintendo’s New Super Mario Brothers Wii, Super Mario Galaxy (pictured above), Microsoft’s Project Natal, Konami’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and The Beatles Rock Band can be found over at the G4 website, http://xplay.com, where every press conference, every announcement, and just about every demo that took place over the breadth of the show is covered in tremendous detail. Check it all out, and you’ll see why we were all so excited about this, E3’s return to form as far as gaming announcements are concerned.

OH, and about that Geek Bet …

So there’s this thing going on that’s kind of a big deal for sports fans called the NBA Finals. Most folks around here, my compatriots at the SomaCow Media Network most especially, have taken slight umbrage at the fact that I’m not, in spite of my current Orlando residential status, pulling for the Orlando Magic in said Finals, but rather cheering mightily for the Los Angeles Lakers of the Western Conference to bring home Championship #15 in their storied history. The story behind my Laker fandom is a simple one: my mom raised me a Lakers fan. This state of affairs inspired ol’ ELROSS of SomaCow to challenge PTG to a friendly little Geek Bet. The terms of this Gentleman’s Wager are thus: Should the Lakers prevail, ELROSS and SomaCow will hand over this delightful item:

Should the Magic take home the goods, however, then I must confer over to ELROSS this Entertainment Earth exclusive item, which ELROSS will seek to fetishize throughout subsequent episodes of SomaCow:

Naturally, a Lakers win would allow me to keep the Ming figure, which is simply too awesome for words.

Prime Time Geek’s video coverage of last April’s FX! International 2009 show here in Orlando, FL continues with this interview with independent comic book writer Shannon Chenoweth. Shannon talks to us about her two ongoing titles, ‘The Line’ and ‘Hypersonic’, as well as the challenges of publishing independently, finding great artists to work with, and marketing her work. Check out everything that Shannon is working on over at her website, http://www.rangerchic.com. You can also find her on MySpace and Twitter. Enjoy!